Badgers give back to service men and womenUW freshmen write letters to service members

July 31, 2014

MADISON, Wis. --UW’s Summer Bridge program concluded on Wednesday with a Badgers Give Back event, as 41 freshmen student-athletes wrote letters to service men and women.

LeAnn Bird of the Office of Academic Services (OAS) said the letters will be sent to members of the Wisconsin National Guard unit who are currently serving overseas.

“We explained the importance of what this would mean to the soldiers and how important it is for Badgers to give back,” Bird said.

Aiming to relieve this transition, the OAS, Office of Student-Athlete Development (OSAD), Compliance and Sports Medicine collaborated for the first time and developed a formal Summer Bridge program for incoming student-athletes at the University of Wisconsin.

"This is a great experience to give back to our service members,” freshman Micah Kapoi of the football team said. “Being from Hawaii, I understand the importance of our military because we were surrounded by many military bases.”

Teams with student-athletes participated in the Summer Bridge program were football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, women's soccer, wrestling and volleyball.